A Sister's Mistake
by GrapplingHook
Summary: When Mabel pushes Dipper a little too hard with Wendy and completely messes everything up, she finds herself scrambling for answers and a way to help Dipper win Wendy's heart. However, she sees something she's not supposed to and is left with a major ultimatum. Save her brother from potential life-threatening danger, or help him be happy for at least the rest of the summer.
1. Poem

"Dipper and Wendy kissing in a tree." Mabel mocked Dipper as she puckered her lips and made a fake kissing sound.

"Will you stop Mabel? I'm trying to focus." Dipper pleaded, aggravated with her teasing, as he wrote down some words on a piece of paper. He was writing a love poem for his crush, the gorgeous fifteen year old, Wendy Corduroy.

"Dipper, it really isn't that hard to talk to girls." Mabel said, punching him playfully in the arm. "Not to mention, she's going to think the poem is creepy. I know I would." Mabel shivered as the mere thought of Gideon reading her a poem, in his southern-esque accent, entered her mind.

Dipper put his pen down and held up the paper before tearing it in half and throwing it in a wastebasket across the room. That wastebasket was already full of twelve crumpled up paper balls. "You don't count. The only thing you have in common with Wendy is that you're both girls."

"And that we've both kissed boys." Mabel responded back, whispering in Dipper's ear, taunting him. She knew Dipper had yet to have his first kiss, and that it bugged him a lot, to the point of near insanity.

"One time hardly counts." Dipper sneered back. "I don't even think Mermando counts as a boy. He's half boy and half fish. So technically, you've kissed half a boy and half a fish. And there's no way I'm taking advice from a girl who's kissed a fish."

Mabel shook her head and placed her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Dipper, Dipper. You're missing the big picture."

Dipper smacked his head at the wooden table he was sitting at. "Please tell me what I'm missing." Dipper demanded dryly.

Just then, Soos walked into the room. He had a purple stain on his question mark shirt and was drinking grape juice from a glass. Soos put the glass down on the table. "Sup dudes?"

Mabel dragged Soos closer to Dipper, placing and arm around his waist, since she couldn't reach his wide shoulders. "Okay Soos, what's the best way for Dipper to get closer with Wendy? Will a _poem_ work?" Mabel placed a special emphasis on poem, making it sound like it was a bad thing that everyone on earth needed to steer clear of.

Soos put his hand on Dipper's back. "Dude, poems are a no go. Trust me on this one." He said with a smile.

"Soos, how many girlfriends have you had?" Dipper asked as he looked at Soos, a little annoyed that he was siding with Mabel.

Soos took a step back and began counting on his fingers. "Zero."

"My point exactly." Dipper went back to writing on his piece of paper, scribbling words down furiously.

"But I have watched a ton of television shows dude. I can tell you that the poem never works. Never dude." Soos said as he picked his glass up and drank some more grape juice at an oddly slow pace.

Dipper clicked his pen and looked at the piece of paper on the table. "Perfect." He said with a smile, marveling at his masterpiece he had just came up with. Dipper was about to pick up the paper when Soos put his glass down on the table and it tipped over, causing a flood of purple to spill all over the paper. "Ahhh!" Dipper screamed as he threw up his hands and left the room, frustrated over his ruined poem.

Soos grabbed some paper towels and started to dry off the table and Dipper's paper as Mabel watched. When Soos was done cleaning up his mess he looked around to see if Dipper was watching before turning to Mabel. "Dude, how much if I eat the paper?" He chuckled. The paper had been destroyed and the words were nearly all illegible, so he figured Dipper wouldn't miss it.

"A penny. Since it probably tastes like grape juice." Mabel said with a confident, brace filled smile.

"Works for me." Soos picked up the purple stained paper and stuffed it in his mouth as he chewed on it. He immediately began coughing before spitting out the paper on the table. He rubbed his tongue. "Tasted like paper." Mabel began to laugh as Soos joined in shortly after.

Amidst the laughter the red haired teen that Dipper had been writing the poem for, walked through the swinging doors that bore the Employees Only sign in the Mystery Shack gift shop. Wendy immediately plopped down in a chair after slinging her backpack in front of her. The bag was a dark green and had some white colored pouches, along with black straps and an opened soda can in a side pocket. "Hey guys." Wendy yawned, propping her mud stained boots on the Pines' kitchen table. "So I hear Stan isn't here for the day." Wendy smirked, looking around the kitchen for her elderly boss.

"Yeah, he's out of town picking up supplies for the gift shop." Soos stated, still holding some of Dipper's purple stained poem.

Wendy nodded in approval before taking notice of the paper Soos was holding. "So whatcha have there Soos?" She asked, slightly leaning forward to try to catch a glimpse at what the stained loose-leaf paper read.

Soos quickly stuffed the paper in his mouth, chewing softly he mumbled. "Nothing... just my lunch." Soos looked around suspiciously and Wendy raised a brow towards him.

Mabel saw what was going on and decided to intervene. "Hey Wendy, I have a question." She said with a smile.

Wendy turned her attention towards Mabel, intrigued with the fact that Mabel was coming to her for an answer. "Sure. What's up?" She asked.

"You've had boyfriends before, right?" Mabel asked, despite knowing the answer from when she asked for advice on Gideon a couple of weeks ago.

"Yeah..." Wendy was hoping Mabel would go straight to the question so she could sit up in her spot on the roof of the Mystery Shack. However, she would need an umbrella, since it was raining, but that didn't make much of a difference to her. The solitude and relaxation of being up there was enough.

"Did any of them write poems for you?" Mabel asked with a bright smile.

"Why, did someone write one for you?" Wendy wasn't smiling, but she had taken her boots off the table and was leaning forward with the soda can in her hand.

"No, no..." Mabel thought for a second, she needed a legitimate lie to protect even a hint of her brother's secret from being revealed. "Someone gave me a poem... so I was curious..."

Wendy cut her off. "Was it that Gideon creep? You know, the one that stole my moisturizer..." Wendy seemed to have some anger light up in her eyes for whatever reason.

"No." Mabel was quick to respond. "It was someone I met... a few days ago."

"Oh... that's good then.." Wendy paused to collect her thoughts for a few moments. "Thinking about it... none of my boyfriends never wrote me any poems." Wendy seemed to be staring at the wall above Mabel's head. "With the exception of Robbie writing... I mean ripping off that one song for me, no one has done anything creative or corny like that." Wendy sighed and leaned back, taking a small sip from her soda can before crushing it in the palm of her hand and tossing it perfectly in the paper filled wastebasket. "It's a shame too... Although I hate to admit it, I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff."

Of course, at that time, Dipper Pines just had to walk in on Wendy admitting her liking for his plan to woo her. He had missed the whole conversation with the exception of Wendy's last sentence. "Like what kind of stuff?" He asked, slightly nervous, since he wasn't expecting her to show up to work on this particular afternoon.

"Hey Dipper." Wendy smiled and nonchalantly placed her mud-stained boots back onto the table. "Mabel was telling me how someone wrote her a poem. And I was saying how none of my boyfriends had done that for me, despite me being a sucker for that kind of stuff."

Dipper snapped his head over to Mabel's awkwardly grinning face. Her braces were showing, and she knew she had screwed this one up for Dipper. Her brother gave her a blank stare that was full of disappointment and resentment.

"Something wrong Dipper?" Wendy seemed to take notice that Dipper was upset.

"No. Everything is fine." He said, turning to Wendy. "I think I'm going to go outside for fresh air."

"You do know that it's pouring rain?" She informed him.

"Even better." He said sarcastically as he left the kitchen through the swinging doors in a fit of anger.

Wendy shrugged and stretched for her bag. "So look what I found in my mailbox yesterday." Wendy pulled out a thick white envelope that had a golden seal on it.

"What is it?" Mabel asked, peeking over the swinging doors and watching Dipper leave the gift shop in the middle of a downpour. She frowned for a second and turned to the window. She saw Dipper looking down at the ground, his white and blue hat were already soaked, and his brown hair was dripping with rain. His vest and shirt were clearly stuck to his body from all the water and his gray shorts were two shades darker. His hands were sitting in his pockets and he was slowly walking towards the woods, kicking the rocks that were on his path with little effort.

Wendy opened her mouth to speak but Mabel quickly acted. "Hold that thought. I thought I heard the doorbell." Two lies in one day, it stung. Mabel quickly ran to the gift shop and opened the door to the dripping rain.

Wendy looked over at Soos. "What's up with that?" Her finger was pointed over her shoulder towards the gift shop. Soos shrugged, playing stupid was his sort of thing, and it came in handy in situations like this.

Mabel closed the gift shop door behind her and stepped out into the heavy drizzle. The rain started to soak her new sweatshirt that she had just knitted yesterday. It was red and had a picture of a brown dog with its tongue sticking out stitched onto it. Mabel ran through the rain, calling Dipper's name. She saw a glimpse of him walk into the forest, so she followed her brother, trying to apologize for what she had done wrong...


	2. Pouring Rain

The rain dripped down the leaves and then splashed on the dirt flooring of the forest, forming small puddles of murky and muddy water. Dipper trudged through these small pools of water as he walked under the drooping branches of maple, oak and pine trees. The wind started to pick up and caused the water that had collected on the leaves to shower down from the trees and splatter on the brim of Dipper's pine tree hat. His hands remained in his pockets as he sighed every few steps and continued to walk through the woods, unable to hear Mabel following behind him because of the rain that sounded like thousands of marbles falling and clapping lightly on a metal surface.

Mabel didn't catch up to Dipper at first. She stayed behind him a few paces back, observing his every step and sigh. She made sure not to splash in any puddles despite her mind tugging hard on her legs to just jump up and slam down hard on the ground causing the liquid to disperse and soak her legs and clothes with mud. Mabel took notice of her surroundings. There was a family of squirrels huddled under a partially uprooted tree to her right. Presumably the parents' tails were wrapped around the smaller squirrels, keeping them safe and dry from the cold drizzle falling from the heavens. To her right was a more dense part of the forest. Thick brush was blocking most of the path and pricker bushes outlined the edge of the opaque, branch filled air.

In front of Mabel, well, that would be the ground. Since she hadn't been watching where she was going, Mabel walked right into a large root that was sticking out of the earth. Her right ankle had caught a hold of it and she fell forward, landing awkwardly on her bent left ankle and into a face full of wet dirt. Mabel writhed onto her side and shouted in pain as her hands instinctively went to hold her injured ankle which was being pounded by the rain as it started to fall a little heavier now.

Mabel's painful scream was enough to catch Dipper's attention. He turned around to see her lying on the ground, holding at her ankle. He sighed again, the rain still dripping from his soaked pine tree hat. He wiped his face with his wet arm, which didn't get any of the water off and really only made his face more saturated. He walked up to his sister and bent down next to her, she didn't seem to be in that much pain to him. Mabel wasn't crying or screaming any more, but she was still holding her ankle. "Why'd you follow me?" He asked apathetically. There was a certain dryness to Dipper's voice that stung Mabel in her heart, nearly as much as her ankle was stinging her.

"I... wanted to..." A tear was coming down Mabel's eye and her voice was beginning to shake. Dipper couldn't tell that she was crying, thanks to the raindrops falling in front of him and running down both of their faces. "...Apologize." Mabel lowered her head a little and wiped beneath her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. The saturated cotton soaked in some of the water and tears and picked up some dirt that had stuck to her face from her fall.

Dipper sighed and place his hand on his sister's shoulder. "It's not your fault... there's no way you could have known that Wendy liked poems..." His voice drifted off into the cold wind that had started blowing. It didn't feel like summer at that time, more of an early spring when the snow had just melted away and rain came to wash out the ground.

Mabel cracked a small smile but a frown quickly took its place. "Still, I was wrong..."

"We all make mistakes." Dipper said with a slight smile as he patted his sisters' back gently. There was a slight moment of silence. Nothing but the sound of the rain tapping against the twins and the ground, and the sound of the cold wind blowing at their faces told Mabel that her brother had forgiven her for the accidental wrongdoing that occurred back at the Mystery Shack. "Let's get back to the shack."

Dipper extended his hand out to Mabel as he stood up. She grabbed it and tired to stand up as he pulled gently on her arm to help. However, she knew something was wrong with her ankle because it throbbed and ached in severe pain as she tried to stand on it. She immediately let go of Dipper's hand and fell to the ground, clutching at her sprained ankle. "Dipper, my ankle." She sobbed, half crying in pain.

Dipper looked around and spotted a tree in the distance that could provide some cover from the rain. He grabbed Mabel from underneath her arms. "Lift your leg up." He knew that there was no way to carry her over to the dry patch, so he was going to drag her. Mabel listened and brought her injured leg up off the ground. Then, Dipper pulled.

He hauled Mabel through the forest, stepping carefully around puddles, so that Mabel wouldn't be dragged through them. He was constantly turning his head around to watch where he was going, making sure he wouldn't suffer the same fate his twin sister did. Occasionally, he would look down at Mabel to see a couple splashes of water hit her in her face, clearing away some of the dirt that was on her cheeks.

They finally made it over to the water-free spot that was provided by a uprooted tree. Dipper's arms already felt sore as he ducked under part of the tree that was sticking out of the ground. He finished dragging Mabel and gently rested her head against the bark of another tree that had fallen behind the dry spot. Mabel muttered out a "Thanks." before Dipper silently left the area and walked back out into the pouring rain without saying a word. Mabel glanced around her. It looked like she was in a cave, but she could see dirt and small roots hanging above her from the tree. To her right were some bigger roots that were sticking out of the ground, curving and bending to the base above her. He left was completely covered by dirt and appeared to be apart of the large tree overhead.

Mabel waited for a time that felt like an eternity for Dipper to return, but he finally did and in his hands was a wide log. It wasn't a very long piece of wood, but it was certainly had the diameter to fit a small television on it. Dipper ducked his head under the root that was by the entrance and lugged the log to the center of the dry spot that was about the size of two small couches placed together. He dropped the log with an oomph and started to dig in the dirt, securing the log in the small hole so that it wouldn't move. Dipper wiped his dirt covered hands on his shorts and then reached for Mabel's ankle. She squirmed and gritted her braces covered teeth in pain as Dipper raised her leg up and elevated Mabel's foot up on the log. Dipper then proceeded to take off his blue vest and place it behind Mabel's head. She could feel the hard cover of the third journal with her neck as she leaned back onto the soft fabric that was covering the hard fallen tree she was previously laying on.

Dipper then raised his arms up a little. Had he raised them up anymore, he would have touched the tree above them. The boy then took off his pine tree hat and set it on the log next to Mabel's shoe and started to take off his shirt. Dipper then brought his orange shirt over his head and grabbed one of its sleeves in his hand. The bare-chested boy brought his shirt up next to Mabel, who had sat silently this whole time, observing Dipper's actions as she thought about her injured ankle. He began to gently wipe the dirt off Mabel's face as he moved the shirt around in his hands to find a clean spot to continue wiping. Dipper didn't show any emotions on his face, with the exception of the occasional tongue that came out of his mouth when he wiped carefully around Mabel's eyes and mouth.

Mabel broke the silence. "I know you're still mad at me..." Dipper paused his wiping of her face and shook his head to signify his disagreeance with Mabel's assumption. He then went over to her legs, which were also covered in dirt and began to wipe them clean using the other side of his shirt, gently maneuvering around Mabel's swollen ankle. Dipper took the shirt and crumpled it up into a ball before throwing it outside of their shelter, that way it could get cleaned off, for the most part anyways.

Dipper sighed and wiped his forehead with his arm. He turned around and sat down cross-legged on the soft dirt beneath his shoes. "I'm not mad..." He said softly before brushing his fingers through his hair. He let out another sigh. "It's not like I stood a chance with Wendy anyways. I'm just chasing after something that's not there..."

Mabel could help but feel sorry for her brother. Despite teasing him for never having a girlfriend or even kissing a girl, she really wanted her brother to be happy; to find a girl who was worthy of Dipper's love. Did Mabel think Wendy was that girl?... Maybe. After all, she didn't really know Wendy all too well, aside from her past that was littered with ex-boyfriends. "Don't say that Dipper... You have a chance..."

Dipper snapped back. "Oh come on. Quit the act Mabel. You and I both know that there's no way Wendy would even consider going out on a date with me." Dipper leaned his head back and landed it on the dirt below, so that he was laying flat on his back. "I don't know why I even bother."

Mabel leaned over to try to put her hand on Dipper's shoulder, but she couldn't reach. "You don't know that. Maybe..." Mabel was cut off by her brother, who was talking as if she wasn't even there.

"I'm too young, too short and not mature enough for her..." He droned on, making Mabel increasingly upset with each word. "... I'm in over my head. Don't you think?" Dipper's tone wasn't as angry and upset as before, but there was still sadness in his voice.

Mabel wiped a tear that had fallen down her cheek. "No. I don't think you are." She had never said something with as much assurance in a statement before in her young life. Dipper turned his head at Mabel, ready to interject, but she didn't give him the chance. "You can be with anyone you want to be with. And if you want to be with Wendy, I'm going to make sure that it happens!" Mabel found herself pounding her fist in the dirt as Dipper watched on wide-eyed. "I'm sick and tired of seeing you miserable all the time, so if it's a girlfriend you want, by golly, it's a girlfriend your going to get."

Dipper smirked before turning his slight smile into a frown. "And how do you propose I go about doing that?"

"Easy. I'm going to help." Mabel tried to stand up before realizing that her ankle wasn't going anywhere.

Dipper continued frowning. "Haven't you helped enough?"

Mabel tried to hit her brother in the arm, but came up short, again. "No. I'm going to teach you all I know about girls, what we like, how we like it and why we like it. And as an added measure, I will do recon on Wendy, to help you learn her likes and dislikes."

"So you're going to stalk her?" Dipper smirked, a light chuckle coming from his mouth.

"Better me than you, right?" Mabel reasoned with a grin.

"Touche..." Dipper trailed off into thought before being brought back by Mabel's voice.

"Consider it my apology present." Mabel smiled and turned to the forest in front of them. The rain had started to slow down and was now only coming down in a light sprinkle.

Dipper nodded and got up. "Thanks Mabel. You're the best." He said with a smile, extending his hand out to help his sister up. He helped her up and they hugged.

"Anything for you bro." Mabel smiled and took Dipper's hand as he helped her limp out of the shelter and into the fresh air that was now lit up by the sun. Dipper and Mabel looked up at the sky. Behind a few clouds and above the greenery of the forest was a colorful rainbow, one that made the day okay for the Pines twins after all.

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**_A/N: So Mabel has devised a plan to get Dipper the girl of his dreams. How will this work out for the Pines twins? There's only one way to find out, wait for the next chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed some of the emotion I tried to put into this chapter. As always, make sure to favorite, follow and review! _**


	3. Pain

Dipper helped a limping Mabel walk back to the Shack through the cold and damp forest. She stood on his right side with her left arm around his wet shoulders, walking with her left ankle hanging in the air as the twins trudged onward in the mud layered ground. Dipper had placed his blue vest back over his body, which didn't keep him all that comfortable in the unseasonably cold weather, not to mention, it left both of his arms and a portion of his chest exposed to the frigid wind.

Dipper placed his left hand in the side pocket of his vest which was filled with the journal, a dirt stained orange shirt and his pine tree hat. He took out his signature head-gear and placed on his cranium to protect it from the descending drops of dew that splashed off the branches above when the wind blew into their faces.

Mabel could feel Dipper shiver and chatter his teeth slightly as they walked. She looked down at her drenched sweater and knew that she had a mostly dry white t-shirt underneath. "Hey Dip." Mabel said softly as he helped her over a fallen log and around a pricker bush simultaneously.

"Yeah Mabes?" Dipper responded back tiredly while he readjusted the arm that was underneath Mabel's arm to help her walk.

"Do you want my sweater to keep you warm?" She asked with a slight smile, trying to hide her brief wincing with every step they took.

Dipper stepped in a puddle of mud and closed his eyes half in disgust and half in anger as the sticky brown glop splattered onto his socks and his calves. "No, I'm fine." He exhaled loudly as they continued to trek through the woods. Silence filled the rest of the walk back to the Shack as both of the twins thought to themselves, each subconsciously guessing what the other was wondering about.

Dipper contemplated Mabel's idea, remaining skeptical about her plan and trying to think of a better way of going about finding out Wendy's interests. He peeked over at Mabel, her head was lowered just the slightest bit and her eyes were staring down, but he figured it was probably just to see if any puddles were in her path as she limped along.

Mabel mused and initialized her conception of the plan she briefly explained to her brother. She had a general idea of what her scheme was, but the details needed to be sorted out. How would she follow Wendy around? When would she follow her around? What would she use to spy with? Finally, what would she do if she got caught? Mabel hated lying, so if there was a way to tell the truth without seeming weird to Wendy she would say it. Mabel continued to grimace silently, staring down at the ground to make sure no puddles were in route to her black and dirt brimmed shoes.

Dipper adjusted his arm again, which was growing sore and burning from his overuse of his muscle (or lack thereof) strength. "Hey Mabel?" He asked cautiously, letting her take a small step ahead of him as they began to trek up a small hill.

"Yeah?" She responded between inaudible grunts, struggling to keep off her injured ankle on the changing incline.

Dipper smiled. "Thanks." He knew he had already expressed his gratitude once to his sister, but something was tugging on him to do it again. He had a huge gut feeling that Mabel would lead him in the right direction, that it could actually all work out in the end.

Mabel faced her brother and returned a grin. The two twins then arrived at the top of the knoll, the Mystery Shack popping up on the horizon of a large tree that had crashed down earlier last week. Mabel mulled a notion in her head before continuing the conversation. "I should be thanking you."

Dipper seemed confused by that statement. "Why? Because of your ankle?"

"No... well... er, yes... and no." Mabel stuttered, trying to find the right words to say. Dipper chuckled, causing Mabel to smile back. "What I mean... is that during this entire summer I was looking for an epic summer romance for myself." Dipper raised a brow, waiting for Mabel to reach her point. "When the entire time, the epic summer romance was right in front of me... between you and Wendy."

Dipper laughed. "I don't know if it's going to be epic." He said with uncertainty and a broad smile.

"Oh, it's going to be." Mabel replied back with assurance.

Dipper and Mabel departed from the forest and walked through the many puddles that littered the uneven ground surrounding their great uncle's tourist trap. Dipper opened the door to the gift shop and let Mabel squeeze by him, kicking the door closed with his leg before they made their way into the kitchen.

Soos was sitting at the table, tapping his fingers on the wood when he jumped out of his seat and rushed over to the dirt covered twins once they pushed through the swinging old-western style doors. "Dudes, what happened?" He asked, helping Dipper sit Mabel down in a chair.

"I tripped and hurt my ankle." Mabel smiled awkwardly to Soos, who stood there and watched Dipper run out of the room.

"Do you know if there's a first aid kit somewhere?" Soos asked Mabel in a hurry, glancing around the kitchen for a large red plus sign on a white plastic box.

She returned a nod and pointed in the direction of the gift shop. "Grunkle Stan has to keep one behind the counter, for 'health and safety reasons.'" Mabel lowered her voice in an attempt to sound like Stan. However, Soos paid no attention at her attempt of humor and rushed out into the gift shop to frantically search for the medical kit. Mabel sat alone in the kitchen for what felt like hours until Dipper returned with a few pillows in his hand and a roll of duct tape around his wrist.

Dipper started stacking soft pillows on the nearest chair until they formed a base where Mabel could rest her swollen ankle. Dipper knelt and carefully held Mabel's leg as she allowed it to go limp and elevated her limb on the fluffy cushions. Mabel winced as he let go and allowed her leg to sink down while he began to wrap a leftover pillow underneath her injured ankle, trying to make a splint. Soos came barging through the swinging doors and smacked the first aid kit on the table. Dipper had never seen Soos move so fast in his life and couldn't help but chuckle. "Soos, I've never seen you move so quick."

Soos frantically turned to Dipper and wiped sweat of his forehead with his arm. "What if it's broken, or she has internal bleeding?"

"It's just a sprain." Dipper said nonchalantly, finishing his makeshift brace and standing up from his kneeling position on the kitchen floor.

"Are you sure dude?" He asked while trying to open the latch of the first aid kit.

"Yeah." Mabel and Dipper responded together, smiling at each other before Mabel took advantage of their harmonic response. "Jinx!" She shouted, pounding her fist into her thigh. "You owe me... uh... something good..." Nothing terribly interesting had come into Mabel's mind, and she had to spit something out.

"Dudes, you have to be kidding me. This is definitely not cool." Dipper and Mabel turned to see an upset Soos holding an empty first aid kit in the air. He gripped a white slip of paper in his chubby hands and read it aloud to the twins. "Call 911. Thanks, Mystery Shack Management."

"So what? I may have tricked the health inspector into thinking that I was following all the health and safety rules." Grunkle Stan said as he waltzed into the room and took of his jacket, placing it on the back of Mabel's chair. "It's not like anyone is actually going... to get... injured." He said slowly as he noticed Mabel's swollen ankle. "She doesn't need to go to a hospital, does she?" He asked a surprised Dipper.

"No, it's just a sprain." Mabel said with a smile, looking up nearly ninety degrees to spot her tired great uncle.

"What are you doing back so soon Mr. Pines?" Soos asked, sitting down in a chair at the table and folding the note up into a smaller slip of paper.

Stan took off his glasses and fogged them up with his breath, before wiping them carefully clean with his black jacket and placing them back on the bridge of his nose. "Turns out the store owner was attacked by some rabid cat or something. So I won't have the supplies I need until the store reopens next week." Stan sighed and sat down in the last unoccupied seat at the table. "Where's the slacker?" He inquired with a brow raised, suspiciously scanning around the room for Wendy.

"She was here..." Soos started before being interjected by Mabel, who jabbed her plump friend in the side with her elbow.

"But now she's on the roof... right Soos?" Mabel gave Soos a forbidding look, one that confused Stan but didn't make him think any deeper.

"Uh... yeah." Soos laughed awkwardly, getting a nod of approval from Mabel. "She sure is up there Mr. Pines..." Soos paused, waiting for someone to speak up, but he became impatient. "I'll go mop up the floors." Soos said quickly, pointing to the tracks of mud Dipper had carried into the house on his shoes.

Soos got up from the table and grabbed a bucket from underneath the sink. He filled it up as Mabel, Dipper and Stan watched him, as if it was an episode of a comedy show on television. "What happ..." Stan began before being cut off by Mabel.

"Why don't you go change and get Wendy from the roof." Mabel instructed her brother who only stared at her bewilderingly before he caught on. He nodded and rushed upstairs, forgetting to take his dirt stained sneakers off. Mabel sighed in relief and spoke to her great uncle. "We got caught outside in the rain storm." She explained. "Then I tripped and twisted my ankle... but I should be fine." Her ankle twitched, causing a burst of pain to shoot up her leg. She closed her eyes and winced softly, hoping Stan wasn't paying attention to her.

"Do you want some ice for that?" Stan asked, pointing to Mabel's black and blue ankle. He seemed genuinely concerned, now that Mabel had expressed the feeling of pain. Mabel nodded silently, gritting her teeth while another jolt of pain throbbed at her ankle. Stan pushed himself out of his chair and walked into the gift shop to grab some ice from outside.

Mabel sat alone for a few seconds before Dipper burst onto the scene with fresh clothing on. "She's not actually on the roof is she?" He asked, hopping down on one leg as he attempted to put a clean sneaker on his foot.

Mabel giggled when Dipper came crashing to the floor, landing on his behind. "No, she's probably home. You can use my bike if you'd like."

Dipper remained on the ground to put his shoes on before jumping up in excitement. "Cool, thanks Mabel."

With that, Dipper rushed out of the room, leaving a smile on his sister's face. "This might be easier than I thought." She said to herself, folding her hands and placing them behind her head to relax before realizing there was an envelope underneath the table, the same one Wendy was going to reveal to the group earlier.

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**_A/N: Make sure to fave, follow and review! It's the giving season after all. :)_  
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